Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
by NerdyBookLover
Summary: A quick AU I wrote, could be SasuNaru if you want. Sasuke and Naruto visit Japan from America and their friendship grows? Maybe. Sorry, I suck at summaries.


**IT'S ALIVE! **

**Yup, I'm actually alive. And I sincerely apologize to everyone who wants me to update my other stories, but I've been really busy with school lately. I promise, though, that I will eventually get around to updating. **

**Anyways, I wrote this little story for one of my classes and this is what I managed to come up with. SasuNaru if you want it to be (which you should). **

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned Naruto, Sakura would have died by now and Sasuke and Naruto would be having hot wet sex in every episode. **

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Koketsu ni Irazunba Koji wo Ezu

虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず。

"Yeah, man! We're in Japan! Hey, that rhymes."

"Do you ever shut up? I'm seriously regretting even asking you to come here with me."

"Oh, come on! I'm your best friend, who else would you take with you?"

Yup. My best friend. His name is Naruto. My name is Sasuke. My parents wanted to give me a traditional Japanese name, even though this is the first and possibly the only time I will ever come to this country. Everyone says that my name suits me, even if they don't have any idea what it means. I always follow my own path and am generally cold to people I don't know. The people who know this are always following in my wake, trying to rectify my harsh words.

'_Sorry about that. He didn't mean it.'_

Yes I did.

"Hey, Sasuke! Look at this awesome view, dude! I think I can see my house from here!"

"Your house is over 6,000 miles away. Now shut up."

"Awww, come on, Sasuke. Have some fun, loosen up a little! We're in a foreign country all on our own with no parental supervision whatsoever and all you've done this whole time is tell me to stop talking."

"That's because you need to." I groaned out, willing my newly accumulated headache to disappear. Oh, the woes of having a frivolous and eccentric best friend. Always trying to get you to 'try new things' and 'get out more'. How troublesome.

"Hey, Sasuke? How do you say-"

"_Urusai_." I growled at him. Maybe he would listen to me if I repeated it in Japanese.

"No, I wanted to know… hey! Doesn't that mean shut up?"

Oh, goody, he's catching on. I just looked over at him, apathy being my only reaction to his outburst, my eyes empty and emotionless. He finally gets it through his thick head that I want him to leave me alone. So I move over to one of the bedrooms in the small, traditional Japanese house our parents managed to rent out for us. It's not like we're little kids, or anything, it's just we don't have a lot of time on our hands to get good jobs with a stable income, what with college and all that. I put my suitcase on my bed and start unpacking. Knowing Naruto, he's probably going to just live out of his suitcase for the entirety of the month we're going to be living here.

Once I finish unpacking, I walk back out into the main room, where Naruto is, still on the 'deck', looking out onto the city of Kyoto. When we told our friends back home that we were visiting Japan, they all assumed that we would be staying somewhere in Tokyo. But I had wanted to stay in Kyoto. We are going to go see Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, and Okinawa at some point as well, but it was imperative that we stay in Kyoto. It was a novel idea I had actually. Normally I wouldn't bother to go out of my way for something as irrelevant as which city we would be staying in (irrelevant to me, anyway). This was all new to me, this feeling of absolute certainty I had when I heard of it. When I was growing up, my mother told me ancient Japanese legends, one of them being a story of Mt. Oe, a mountain in Kyoto. It is said that the demon Shuten-dôji lived there and was killed by Minamoto no Yorimitsu. I was always fascinated with the story, and I guess it stuck with me. So it was a _complete_ shock that one morning a travel brochure of Kyoto showed up on our coffee table, right next to the newspaper my dad read every day and under my mother's cup of tea. A completely _fortuitous_ happenstance; totally unforeseeable. Suffice it to say that the decision we made was pretty obvious after that turn of events.

I walk back over to the 'deck' and look out at the view. There is almost what could be considered a small backyard, with a koi pond and a small shrine dedicated to someone's ancestors. There were dozens of small trees, some with pink blossoms. _Sakura._ That's what they are called here. It's April right now, so the weather is nice. Not too hot, not too cold. And a good thing, too, because traditional houses (such as the one I find myself in now) have walls made of paper, with wood for support. Beyond the blossoms, fields of grass and bamboo stretch for miles. There are some people working in the fields and some children running around laughing, their parents keeping an eye on them while socializing simultaneously. I look over at Naruto and I see he has a strange look on his face. One that I've seen one too many times in my short lifespan. He's planning something. Something devious.

"What are you planning?" I ask cautiously, my mood suddenly becoming morose and sullen.

"Let's go out tonight!"

He says it so innocently, I almost forget who I'm talking to. Then I remember. And I briefly wonder whether it was a good idea to bring him along after all.

**Naruto's POV**

"You have _got_ to be kidding me."

"Oh, come on, Sasuke! I thought you would like this!"

"Why would you possibly think that, Naruto?"

"That's why you wanted to stay in Kyoto, right?"

"Well, yes but—"

I sigh. "You can be so hard to understand sometimes. Your middle name should be abstruse."

"Oh, shut up. It's not my fault you have an affinity for stupidity. It's as if it follows you around in the form of bad ideas."

"I don't see how it's a bad idea."

"I kind of figured that out. Your incessant nagging gave that away. Do you ever give up when things don't go your way?"

"No."

Sasuke just sighs and turns away muttering something to himself about how remorseful he is for inviting me along. Well I think he should stop regretting his decision and just shut up already. I know, shocking, right. Me, the troublemaker who can't keep his mouth shut for more than five minutes, wants Sasuke, he-who-never-speaks, to stop talking. Not very pragmatic or practical under normal circumstances. But I honestly think Sasuke should stop complaining and just have some fun for once. He's my best friend, but he treats me like crap. I know he's not malevolent; he doesn't wish me harm. But he acts as if he does.

That's why I want him to loosen up a little. Go out, have some fun. He's too tense. Maybe if he burnishes his social skills and goes out every once in a while, he won't be so… so… Oh, I don't know. But he won't be as uptight as he usually is. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

On the trip over here I had been thinking of ideas on how to help him out. But I couldn't think of anything. I mean, how do you get someone who is a complete _teme_ to have some fun? Even when we got to the house I still hadn't come up with anything.

And then it hit me.

We were in Kyoto. And despite my tendency to slack off, I had actually done my research on the place. When Sasuke asked me to go to Japan with him, I had immediately jumped to the conclusion—as had everyone else— that we would be staying in or near Tokyo. But nope. We're in Kyoto.

When you google Kyoto, you get maps and history and tourist sites. But if you dig deeper, you can find much more like ancient legends.

Like the demon of Mt. Oe. I had vaguely remembered Sasuke mentioning the stories his parents would tell him as a kid. Then it clicked, almost like serendipity. That's why Sasuke had wanted to stay in Kyoto; not Tokyo or Sapporo. No. Kyoto.

So, I thought it would be fun to make him actually visit the mountain, maybe stop at a hot spring. But _no. _He doesn't want to. Party pooper. But I'm sure I'll find a way to convince him. Just you wait.

**Sasuke's POV**

As if it wasn't bad enough to have my annoying best friend (though I'm really starting to rethink that title…) come with me to Japan, now he's trying to make me go to that stupid mountain. The one I told myself that I was just curious about. I wasn't planning on actually going there. But I might not have a choice anymore. This is Naruto I'm dealing with here, and he's no stranger to persuasion, blackmail, and the likes. But if he thinks I'm going to acquiesce just like that, and not go down without a fight, he's got another thing coming.

You see, there's just one thing that people, including Naruto, seem to overlook all the time. I am more on the prosaic side of things. I'm rather dull and not spontaneous at all. Naruto on the other hand is capricious, always going by whatever crazy idea pops into his head. Our friendship is an enigma in itself, a strange phenomenon that blurs the line between a normal friendship and… well, whatever we have going for us. We constantly contradict each other, whether it be through looks or our speech or our actions. We are just so different that we are alike. If that makes any sense.

I never paid any attention to anyone else before I met Naruto. I thought of people that weren't related to me as redundant; meaningless. They were all the same anyway, so why should I bother to get to know them? Naruto was different, though I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or not. The day we met was the first time I was sent to principal's office in middle school. I had never skipped class or talked back to a teacher before in my life and I had imagined that was how it was always going to be. I would just blend into the background all throughout my school years and then go off to college on my own, never depending on anyone but myself.

But on that day, I was given my first detention. Because I had punched Naruto in the face. It was his own fault. He didn't have to approach me and be all loud and flash that infuriating smile of his. But he did. He even had the nerve to ask me if he could be my partner on the science project the teacher had just assigned. The one I had planned on doing alone. The one I would have gotten an A+ on because of how meticulous I am when it comes to those tiny details that a person with as small a brain as Naruto would never have even noticed.

I had been surprised that he asked and maybe even a little happy. But I turned him down because accepting would put me out of my well established comfort zone and I just couldn't have that. Apparently this upset him because he started yelling at me about how I never let anyone in, as if he _knew_. So I punched him and called him a _dobe_. This in turn caused him to tackle me from my desk and start a full out brawl.

When the teacher had managed to control us, we were sent down to the principal, who gave us both detention for two weeks for that. And since we ended up spending so much time together (even though it was completely unwillingly on my part) we managed to form a sort of bond. I even ended up being his partner for the science project we had been fighting over. And then there was another first for me since I had met him. A B- on a project. Never in my entire life up until that point had I gotten anything below and A in all of my classes. But when we got that grade back and I saw how happy Naruto was just because he managed to _pass_… I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment.

We've been friends ever since. Thinking back on it now, maybe it was a good idea to bring him along. When I had first decided to come to Japan, the first thought that popped into my head was that Naruto would be ecstatic. I hadn't really thought of whether or not I was bringing him, it was sort of like a given. As if it had already been planned out.

I sigh. "Hey, Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"If it really means that much to you… we can go see that stupid mountain. I'm sure it's going to be a total waste of my time, but I guess I'm okay with that."

Naruto just sort of stares at me for a minute, emotions flashing across his features. I've always been able to read him like an open book. First, shock. He can't believe I actually agreed to do something for once and I actually used my words to get a point across. Second, hesitance. What if I'm joking and am secretly planning on murdering him in his sleep afterwards because it was such a bad idea. Third, excitement. He thinks he's finally changed my ways.

I slap him upside the head. "Don't even think about it."

Fourth, pouty drama queen, I-can't-believe-I-actually-have-to-put-up-with-this-abuse; defeat.

"Fine, then. Be that way." He mumbles to himself, though I can tell he's still excited about finally getting to me. I sigh once more.

How troublesome.

**I kind of made Sasuke like Shikamaru, but whatever. Hope no one kills me. And if you think I should add some more, just tell me, cuz I could probably create a better ending, but I'm being lazy right now. **

**Thanks for reading, and I WILL eventually update my other stories. **


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